My Opinion of the CQ WW 160M CW Contest 2011

The CQ WW 160m CW Contest is over and I’d like to say, it was rather temperamental.

Discussion on the Contest commenced in the Contest.ru long before it started; the main subject has being about legal Russian power of 10 W allowed.

Well, if one reviews the case based on the contest rules, nobody prohibits a participant to operate 10 W and apply in LP in due order, or HP.

A participant is free to select his entry.

Actually, it’s of course understandable that in case of inspection any Russian amateur will be a violator.

Russian hams are not alone here though, as 1.5 kW output power limit allowed by the sponsors is also being violated by many participants.

In general, the power issue is delicate subject, as there is no difference whether you exceeded 1W, or 3kW, or 10kW; PA’s available on the market do not have such restrictions, so one can say that everybody violates this rule.

International contests criteria are another subject.

If the contest pretends to be international, either equal rules shall be applied for all participants (to allow the minimum legal power as the highest contest power limit), or remove 1500 W limit and other terms that refer to national rules compliance; one more option would be to make separate group entry for US hams operating from continental USA with power limitation, and do not apply this rules to the others.

What was the best remembered in the CQ WW 160m CW Contest 2011?

- Fantastic activity I never saw such number of countries in this contest. Very high activity from Caribbean and South America, growth of stations from the Middle East and Asia, there were not a few African stations also.

- New technologies Dual CQ was displayed by a few M/S teams, and we may expect the same from SO. Perhaps, they use it already, - may be I didn’t note this.

- Poor reception of the leaders I was surprised with reception of EF8M and CR2X. I heard their records a few times, but their response to pile-up calls were ‘CQ’. In particular, EF8M had evident reception difficulties, although CR2X also had it. I think would they have better reception possibilities; their results might be much higher.

- Low competition in SO Competition between SO was very hard in Europe, easier (IMHO) in NA, and absolutely no competition in Africa, taking into consideration the rules of the contest, advantage, and actually unbroken advantage of West Africa (although, Europeans are trying to annul it in every possible way). The only station from West Africa was EF8M. So this competition was per se.

To be fair, this is not WW 160 problem only, but CQ WW as well. Though, for sure in CQ WW this category dramatically reduced DX-pedition activities.

Contest funs Perhaps, I am risking, but actually all notes will be about UA8AA, ex RA9JR, but he opened out to be a ‘talented’ guy.

It was his second contest as UA5A, and the second scandal in row, - on the international stage now. Absolutely not charging his brains with Russian instruction, he operated CQ below 1810 for hours.

Another example. Perhaps someone can explain Yuri that it is not a crime to spot a station, and it is not prohibited by the contest rules.

Another thing, if you’ve got telephone instruction to spot the station; but even in this case one has to spot with his own call sign, and in no case with a few calls, like Yuri did when he generated spots from RZ3AXX, RA9JR, RZ3AYE, RX3DUU (the last one is perhaps extended version of RX3DU).

Of course, all spots were from the same IP address.

One does not need to be explained of Yury’s style to call multipliers; he even managed to be black-listed by J28AA.

Those were my impressions in general.

I very much liked the competition within Europe.

To be honest, I expected more multipliers from the contesters, and thought somebody would exceed 110 countries level. Perhaps, this’ll happen the next year.

My congratulations to all participants with excellent scores, with new countries, and with the pleasure obtained.

Yes, we really need a category "one boy and his radio". There is no sense this SOnR trend coming about. About power limit, It has changed the face of contesting. Now contest isn't about how skilled you are or as much technology you can control any more, but it is about how loud you can afford.

100%

Rating: 5 of 5

Al

Callsign: 4L5A

2011-02-06 08:26:09

Danny
I agree with you
The problem is even your 1,5 kw amplifier giving you lets say 1501 watt output and thats mean you running more power then allowed in contest
What power is allowed in your country now?
I dont think CQ WW can check power anyway
Americans is also not following rules
When they going to Caribean in many countries 1,5 kw is not allowed etc etc
I think we need to get back SO1R category
You absolutely right you cant compete with SO2R or SO3R and propably soon we will see SO4R etc etc
Thats also not allowing people to organize small DX Pedition because no chance to compete
Thank you for your input
73 Al 4L5A

100%

Rating: 5 of 5

Daniel Danny Horvat

Callsign: E73M

2011-02-06 08:20:43

4L5A wrote:"In general, the power issue is delicate subject, as there is no difference whether you exceeded 1W, or 3kW, or 10kW; PA’s available on the market do not have such restrictions, so one can say that everybody violates this rule."
NOT everybody!
Well, I for one am still LP (read legal power, 1500w).
Question is when or if I am going to move on to high power in order to be competitive with European big guns such as ES5TV, 4O3A etc .
As number of participants and categories increases it is easier to migrate to another category in order to justify my participation in contests at all.
Recent developments such as SO3R and three amps into three antennas do not leave us, small guns, much room to compete.
In M/S and M/M there are too many big amplifiers so bands are getting crowded with just few stations.
I am loosing interest in competing and sure I am not alone.
73 Danny, E73M